WSNA in Olympia — 2025 Legislative Session

With the passing of the Tuesday, April 8 deadline for bills to be voted out of fiscal committees, the legislative process has now entered its next phase. Both the House and Senate have shifted their focus to floor debates, caucus, and conference committee negotiations as they work through the last two weeks of the 2025 regular legislative session. The next deadline of consequence is the Opposite Floor Cutoff on April 16, which bills must be voted out of the opposite chamber.

Although the broader legislature remains focused on voting on policy bills through April 16, budget negotiations are ongoing behind the scenes. Fiscal leaders are grappling with how to reconcile their funding priorities with concerns raised by Governor Ferguson last week, especially around proposed revenue measures. The central challenge is finding common ground between legislative goals and the governor’s push for reduced spending and less new revenue.

Brian Heywood Submits Property Tax Initiative

On Tuesday, Brian Heywood, the founder of Let’s Go Washington filed another measure, this time aiming to reduce the allowable property tax increase from 1% to 0.5%. Local governments—such as cities, counties, fire districts, and school districts—often rely heavily on property taxes to fund critical services such as public safety and public health. Jurisdictions needing more than 0.5% increases would then need to seek voter-approved levy lid lifts more often. With less revenue, local jurisdictions might need to reduce spending. For this initiative to be certified, petitions must be submitted no later than 5pm on July 3, 2025, and must contain the signatures of at least 308,911 registered voters (386,000 are recommended to allow for invalid signatures).

This session, the Washington State Legislature is considering new revenue proposals that would update our state's tax code to ensure all of our communities get the resources and funding they need. Due to the large budget deficit, legislators are looking at cutting services many working people and some of our most vulnerable populations rely on. These cuts will impact almost every sector in our life: healthcare, early learning, education, public safety, and behavioral health.

Washington state is the second most regressive tax state, meaning that the lowest income individuals and families pay more taxes as a share of their income than the wealthy. We have a great opportunity to bring balance into our tax system by asking the extraordinarily wealthy and the world’s largest corporations to share the responsibility. By passing progressive revenue, we can adequately and sustainably fund world-class schools, affordable healthcare, and robust community services our families need.

HB 1162 was voted out of the Senate Ways & Means committee on Monday. The bill needs to be “pulled” from the Rules Committee and voted off the Senate floor by April 16.

SB 5041 was voted out of the House Appropriations committee on Monday and currently sits on the House floor calendar. The bill needs to be voted off the House floor by April 16.

HB 1430 was scheduled for a vote in the Senate Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday, but no action was taken. It did not pass out of committee before the April 8 fiscal cutoff, so the bill is considered dead this session.

ARNPs United and WSNA are committed to working on this issue over the interim.

Events/Rallies

• Rallies for Progressive Revenue – Multiple happening across the state
  • Saturday, April 12 at 11am: East King County Rally for Progressive Revenue. March will start at the Testa Dealership (104 Bellevue Square, Bellevue, WA 98004) and end at the Amazon Bellevue (10450 NE 10th Street, Bellevue, WA 98004). Click here for more information and to RSVP.
  • Sunday, April 13 at 2pm: Snohomish County Rally for Progressive Revenue. Meet at the Safeway parking lot at 41st & Rucker (4128 Rucker Ave, Everett, WA 98203). Click here for more information and to RSVP.
  • Sunday, April 13 from 12-2pm: Peninsula LD 24 Rally for Progressive Revenue. Meet at the parking lot on Highway 104 right before crossing the Hood Canal Bridge from Port Gamble. Click here for more information, the exact location, and to RSVP.
  • Sunday, April 13 from 9-11am: Peninsula LD 26 Rally for Progressive Revenue. Meet at the SEIU 775 Office (3721 Kitsap Way, Bremerton, WA 98312). Click here for more information and to RSVP.
  • Monday, April 14 from 8-10am: Spokane Rally for Progressive Revenue. Meet at South Regal St. & Second Ave. at the base of I-90 pedestrian bridge. Click here for more information, the exact location, and to RSVP.
• Tuesday, April 29: Healthcare Defense Day of Action. Stay tuned for more information.
• Find events, petitions, volunteer opportunities, fundraisers and more with AFT.

Upcoming Legislative Milestones

• April 16 – Opposite House Floor Cutoff
• All of April – State House and Senate budget negotiations
• April 14 to April 25 – Federal Senate recess
• TBD – State Final Budget Released
• April 27 – End of State Legislative session in Olympia (unless extended into a special session, TBD)
• August 5 – Primary Election
• September 30 – Deadline for Federal Budget
• November 4 – General Election

The legislature considers hundreds of bills outside our own legislative priorities. Below is a list of bills we’re watching as they move through the legislative process that may impact members. Click on any of the links to learn more about each bill and where it is in the legislative process.

DEAD HB 1622, allowing bargaining over matters related to the use of artificial intelligence

NEW! HB 2073/SB 5808, funding health insurance premium assistance

HB 2045, investing in Washington families by restructuring the business and occupation tax on high grossing businesses and financial institutions

HB 2046, creating fairness in Washington’s tax by imposing a tax on select financial intangible assets

HB 2049, investing in the state’s paramount duty to fund K-12 education and build strong and safe communities

SB 5794, adopting recommendations from the tax preference performance review process, eliminating obsolete tax preferences, clarifying legislative intent, and addressing changes in constitutional law

 SB 5795, reducing the state sales and use tax rate

SB 5796, enacting an excise tax on large employers on the amount of payroll expenses above the social security wage threshold to fund programs and services to benefit Washingtonians

SB 5797, enacting a tax on stocks, bonds, and other financial intangible assets for the benefit of public schools

SB 5798, concerning property tax reform

HB 1879, concerning meal and rest breaks for hospital workers

SB 5101, expanding access to leave and safety accommodations to include workers who are victims of hate crimes or bias incidents

SB 5503, concerning public employee collective bargaining processes

SB 5493, concerning hospital price transparency

HB 1531, preserving the ability of public officials to address communicable diseases

HB 1308, concerning access to personnel recordsHB 1022, creating a home for heroes program.

HB 1213, expanding protections for workers in the state paid family and medical leave

HB 1069, allowing bargaining over contributions for certain supplemental retirement benefits

HB 1686, creating a health care entity registry

How does a bill become a law?

Washington State Labor Council’s 2025 Legislative Priorities

This week, the U.S. Congress has approved a broad budget framework that will cut taxes by about $5 trillion. While the details will be finalized over the coming months, major cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare programs are still on the table.

Take action and tell your Members of Congress to Say NO to Medicaid cuts!

Medicaid matters to people. You can click here to see how important Medicaid is to Washington residents, communities, and local hospitals.

More than 1.8 million Washingtonians are enrolled in Apple Health, our state’s Medicaid program. Tell your member of Congress to support Medicaid by sharing how important it is to your community and healthcare access! You will be directed to AFT’s action alert, where you first fill out your information, and then the letter you send to your Member of Congress which can be edited before submittal if you choose to do so.

Learn more about Medicaid here.